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How-To Geek

If you are looking to upgrade the memory in your computer, you are probably wondering how many open slots you have, what type of memory is already installed, and what you need to buy for an upgrade… without having to open your computer.

Since you shouldn’t have to open up the computer just to figure out what you have installed, here’s a couple of options for detecting the type of memory already installed in your system.

Using Speccy

This very useful free application should be a standard in any geek’s toolkit. It comes bundled as a single file, no installation required, assuming you download the portable version. They also have a paid version with more features.

You can immediately see the type of RAM you have installed.

The only question is whether I can install faster memory than the memory already installed, which leads us into our next option.

Memory manufacturer Crucial has put together an amazing website, combined with an optional system scanner tool that will detect the memory already installed in your computer the same way System Information for Windows does… It’s just not as geeky.

On their homepage, there’s the two options… if you’ve already figured out the memory you have installed, you can use the drop-down menus on the right to select your system.

They will give you some great information about what your computer can support, along with a list of questions and answers. Turns out I can upgrade to faster PC2-5300 memory if I wanted…

If you chose the system scanner route, you’ll be redirected to a web page showing you the current memory configuration, and what they recommend for upgrading, although they seem to give you less information on this screen.

I’m not sure that you necessarily want to buy memory from Crucial directly since you could probably get a better price elsewhere, but their memory advisor is extremely useful to figure out what you need.

You can look up the specs for your system to figure out what memory types your computer takes. I usually google for “modelnumber specs”, for instance I’d type in “nc8430 specs”.

You can use some of the other memory advisors, like Kingston or PNY, but their sites are a bit less useful.

Pull out the manual for your computer or motherboard, and take a look at your receipts to figure out what you bought last time.

If you built a computer with parts from Newegg, you can look at your order history to re-order the exact same memory module if you know you have empty slots. (This is exactly the route I chose last month)

If you are running Mac OS X, you can just look under your “About this Mac” and then click on More Info.

Upgrading the memory in your computer is the fastest way to better performance in Windows Vista. I’d recommend 2GB of RAM for Vista, but don’t bother going over 3GB if you are using 32-bit Vista or XP because Windows won’t be able to use all of it.

Comments (50)

On linux you can just run (as root from a terminal) dmidecode for all of your hardware specs. AFAIK dmidecode is on literally every *nix machine I’ve touched. It’ll give you a huge list of crap, if you want to save the output just type “dmidecode > output.txt” replacing output.txt with whatever file name you want. If you just want memory speed to show up in the terminal just grep the output (something like “dmidecode|grep “Current Speed” and your CPU and RAM speeds should show up).

I just found out that the calculator in windows will tell you how much ram you have. Click Start>Programs>Accessories>Calculator. Then click help>about, and at the bottom of the dialog it will say how much ram you have. Probably the fastest way to check it in windows :)

Hi. Crucial’s tool is pretty good, but unfortunately for anyone running any browser besides IE, it won’t work. I work for another memory company, 4allmemory.com, and like a few other memory companies, we also have a memory advisor tool that does the exact same thing, and also works on FF. Not to mention we generally have better prices. :)

Crucial’s website works fine in Firefox, but not the scanning tool. If you try to run it in FF it tells you to download an external .exe file which you can then run locally which then sends you to the appropriate page on their site. The point I was trying to make with my comment was simply to point out that Crucial doesn’t have the monopoly on this kind of technology and there are several sites out there that can offer the same thing.

Secondly, our tool (and many other similar tools out there) do not require restarting the browser, and while it does install a plugin into FF, it does not save it and uninstalls itself immediately afterwards.

Brandon.. what are you saying about this WinKey+Break?? i don’t really understand what you’re saying.. can you like.. explain it more easily?? and you know about the finding your like, computer number to find out the information about your computer? what if it doesn’t tell you no nothing…

ok… i installed the SIW or something… it’s awsome… i actually got informations i needed… Also.. it was very helpful because i couldn’t get in to my bro’s computer because it was one of those small computers…i had to know what type of memory he had.. but this SIW really helped out.. he had DDR2 something…. Thanks.. oh yea.. by the way.. can you guys help me out with some type of game? i know it’s a bit off topic but.. it would be awsome if this site can disscuss about games..

Great info. RAM is the best way to speed up your PC for sure but make sure you also do a reg scan and spyware scan to make sure your system’s optimal. Even with the extra ram, these things will eventually kill your performance again.

I don’t have internet on my computer and wont for three to six weeks, but my brother in law is buying me some more memory… for some reason my computer does not have windows help and support so the system information will not come up. Is there any other way to tell what type of memory my system runs.

Thanks for the info SIW is great. I don’t know what kinda crack people are smoking but the speed of my RAM is shown right beside the field that says “speed” It tells me that I have DDR2 800 and PC2-6400. There is a problem though, it says that my max capacity and max module size is 2GB but adding up my 2 x 2GB sticks gives me 4GB. Is this because I’m running dual channel? maybe……..

I used the SIW and it worked great for finding the info I needed. But….is it a one-time-run only program? I thought I had downloaded it….and wanted to go run it again….but I don’t see it on my desk-top or in my program files…..

hi i was wondering how much more memory can i add to my computor ! desktop acer aspire t137
serial numb dqh-qpp97-p3wtk-82vpp-2d88q.and what type of memory i need(.alittle ballon pops up and says your computor is running low on memory ! please add more memory !!)
tower is only 2& half yrs old.
i dont know if you need any more details please let me know if so
.thank you
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We have a compaq laptop w p/n RQ337UA#ABA. It came with Windows Vista Home Basic. I need Microsoft office suite. I have the office suite program, but when I tried to load it to the laptop, it would never complete. My though is that there isn’t enough of something/memory, etc.. to hold it. Please advise what to do. Thank you in advance.

All computer users should be aware at the capability and limitations of their own computer. To be able to maximize the capacity of your own PC, one must know the specs of the unit first and the capacity it would be able to handle.Information or knowledge would definitely make a big difference in one’s computing experience.

My system information doesn’t look like this. I have a Gateway with Pentium 4 CPU 1.50GHz 1.50 GH, 256 MB of RAM. I have 2 sticks of RAM & a spot for 1 more. My daughter bought me an upgrade. Do I have to take out the other 2 when I put that in? When we put it in, the mouse & the monitor doesn’t come on. So we took it back out. My daughter ordered it especially for my PC. Another thing I’d like to know is what else do I need to do to make my computer go faster. I keep the files cleaned out & defrag when it says to. Help.

I was given a notebook — don’t know the brand — can’t find it. When I pull up the google mail it says I don’t have enough memory to run the application. This is what is on the box
Processor VIA 8505
RAm 128MB (up to 256MB)
Main storage: 2GB Flash
WLAN: WIFE 802.11b/g

Hi My Dears
i am An IT Assistant in a company i have a big problem with my New HP color laser jet 4525 printer when i print a Document it print an error like this
pcl xl error
error: missing data
Operator: Read image
position: 97 some time it 267-718 …. etc
Note: some time it print correctcally one r two documents after that it print the same error msg what do i do….. ??????
please help me i m waiting to yours reply i am in a big problem

I really liked the Crucial memory scanner. It tells you exactly what you need, how much more RAM you can install, and even lines up the right RAM for you to buy. I compared their prices to Best Buy, and it was the same, and I had the assurance that this was the exact right type for my system, so I went with them. Very handy service, got me an answer quickly, and I’m good to go. Free shipping, too! Very highly recommended. Thanks for the tip!

I do also like SIW also for most things. It’s just that memory information is pretty iffy “at times”. It says that my Dell Dimension 3000 has a max memory of 4gb. That is just not true. It’s a good entry level, 2 slot PC that is and always will have a max of 2gb by design.

My Dell E510 – SIW shows warnings, red X’s, yellow exclamation marks and reads “wrong values reported by BIOS!!”. But both BIOS and Windows show no memory problems whatsoever. So I went right to Dell with it, and was told everything shows perfect; AND it also goes like a rocket! [2x2gb Kingston]

Accurate memory info is just not one of SIW’s strong suits. Good for all else though [:)